The Innocent of the War
by angelscoverupyourpin
Summary: When sixteen year old Callum finds himself trapped in a never-ending war, he has to find a way to escape from the town he loves. He must take care of his first girlfriend Cassie, who is fierce and loves him so much. When Cassie suffers fatal injuries, Callum vows to find the people who took his love from the world, and make them pay for all the pain they have caused.
1. Escape

_The Innocent of the War – Chapter 1 – Escape_

_I ran. That was all that I had left. The choice to run or the choice to die. Of course I couldn't die. I had suffered through too much to die now. I could feel the barren wasteland of the scorched earth peeling the skin off the balls of my feet. The pain lynched through my legs as I began to falter after what felt like hundreds of miles. I looked back at the town where I lived. Carterwoods. A place of dreams, my father used to say. Before the foreigners came to play. The southern foreigners with their petty little army games. It took only one trip to send me careering down a slight dip in the landscape. The rough sandy stones pierced my soft cheek and blood coated my face… I stopped completely. I had to now. I slept in the cool humid night of the summertime, breathing so heavy, my chest felt like it would shatter at the movement. My body felt limp._


	2. Recovery

_The Innocent of the War – Chapter 2 – Recovery_

_Ice. I always hated the feel of ice. The slippery wet cold feel made my skin crawl. And yet here, in the destitute of the Valley, that was all I desired… When I found the strength to lift my head out of a pile of rocks, I could feel my hair, congealed in a sticky mess of blood that had half-dried up in the humid night. How idiotic of me?! I should have kept going, heading east for the coastline. Anxiously, I angled my head to the left: the neck muscles on the right so tight that I had to have a few tries before I could hear the bombs. I must have ran at least five miles. Maybe even ten. But no distance could have removed the image I saw from the grey-red sky of early morning. At least twenty plumes of charcoal smoke billowed into the cloudless abyss: almost all of them were factory towers that had been sprinkled up against the outskirts of the town. They targeted the factories first. That was the day I lost my father to the fire. The first bombs to fall hit his factory directly, and he was blown apart. It only took an hour to decimate over half the population of my home-town. At the end of that day, it was estimated only a few handfuls of men were left alive. I can see a face in my mind again, that woman's face… A face of fear and sorrow and anguish. But she was in shock, and couldn't have saved herself from the concrete wall that blasted her down when another wave of explosives hit. I find myself running again, concentrating on the warm colours of the equatorial sky that always came on summer mornings: desperate for the inter-mingling of the blue crisp sea-scape that I was fleeing towards._


	3. Endurance

_The Innocent of the War – Chapter 3 – Endurance_

_My town never attracted much attention. Carterwoods was never on any map, and the only way to get to it was to travel thirty miles down a rickety road full of holes. But for the people who lived and worked there, it was beautiful. In the north lay a dense wood, where bright sunlight fragmented through the slits in the canopy of the lush trees. The plant life was famous for being both edible and very easy to grow, it even grew in a nook of the kitchen near the back door. I called it Summerblossom. I always picked some in June and decorated the elegance of the memorial fountain that laid the foundations of the town's first settlers. I remember seeing tiny fish racing around in that warm clear water one evening last year. I would imagine that from above the town looks very much like a circle, because most of our housing estates had curved roads that all joined up somewhere or other. But my most treasured place to go was to the Mountain of the Whispers: scorched by the sun and eroded by the rain, it left a perfect smooth surface that was perfect to sit down and admire the breathtaking views of the Valley. I think it was called the Valley of the Sighs… vast expanses of red sand and rock glazed over the top by an almost clear pale blue sky. I went there every year as a child. Even though we were a good twenty miles from the coast, the sea was still visible, reflected by the light. And that was the same sight I got after running for three days. I was thinner than I thought possible. My lungs felt like they were disintegrating with each breath. My throat was coarse and my stomach was churning with acid. It was only when I careered down the sandy shore of Crimson Heart Beach, that I stopped and admired the place I had never been to before. I angled my head up and closed my eyes. I fell forwards._


	4. Shadows and Strangers

_The Innocent of the War – Chapter 4 – Shadows and Strangers_

_Cassie was a year older than me, she'd just entered her first year at the college. But anyone who didn't know Cassie would have thought she was my little sister! Her face was perfectly young, no features had changed in six years, apart from it thinning out slightly through her teens. Her hair always fell the same way, slightly off center, with a swept fringe that highlighted her amber eyes. I loved the warmth I received in those eyes: my Cassie's eyes…_

All that I was greeted with when I once again hauled myself out of unconsciousness was sand. I spat out the mouthful of sand that had blasted the walls of my mouth raw. Each movement I made was met with faint groans. I never saw the shadow that accompanied me on the beach. All I saw was the cabin, weathered grey in the harsh sunlight of long days. I imagine it once was brilliant white. The door was stiff, but I kicked it free, and found it was a shop. Ravenous, I ate almost half of the remaining stock that had been left there. Night was falling fast, as I examined the place around me, all apart from the far west, where a glimpse allowed me to witness only a solitary chimney of flame, wide and tall. I looked mainly at the cliffs at the far end of the beach. That was when I saw it. A black entity shifting through a crevice thirty or so feet high. Now, I felt a presence closing in on me, and the shadow I had failed to notice earlier was now growing behind me, coming… from Carterwoods. I clenched a hand, ready to throw it straight at a face: hopefully breaking a jaw or cheekbone, so I could once again flee. I sucked in a clammy breath, tightened the muscles in my arm, and swung around, fist flying and colliding with an object. They were copying me. My feet flew higher than my head as I was thrown against a cluster of shoals dried up in the heat. My leg cracked and shot wrenching pain through the nerves in it. I screamed.  
'You know, you shouldn't scare me like that. Or I wouldn't have had to defend myself against you. Hahahahah.'

The figure eclipsed the sunlight that had blinded my face when I landed. When my vision eventually returned I craned up, and recognised those child-like features…


	5. Reunited

_The Innocent of the War – Chapter 5 – Reunited_

All I could do was gape. My hands had gone cold and clammy. I knew this face!  
'Cassie…?' came from my dry lips. I threw myself at her, buried my head into the dip of her right shoulder and held her close.  
'Hi there, Callum.' I could hear the smile in her voice, and we both broke into tears. Time passed so quickly that when my tear ducts had dried up, the sun had dipped below the horizon and night was fast approaching. I let her go then, we couldn't defend ourselves in the open, so I ordered her into the shop while I got some rocks to block the door. When the job was done, Cassie had already made herself comfortable and patted the floor by her side: beckoning for me to join her, I couldn't refuse. I wrapped an arm around her, and asked her the question I knew would not be easy to answer.  
'So, what happened?' I was met with silence at first, and slowly she told her story. Of how the houses full of children had burned bright orange, how shops and disintegrated and their goods exploded across the square, of how the trees in the forest I went to for sanctuary were now a bunch of splinters in both people and buildings. And worst of all, of how she saw my mother running to find me, into our house that collapsed as soon as she went inside… I sobbed so much after that that Cassie stopped her stories and focused on comforting me for my loss. Cassie told me in the early morning once I had composed myself that she'd lost all but one member of her family that she knew, and that her father had lost an arm and both his legs. It was then that I comforted her for her pain.

_BANG, BANG!_

We both jumped at the sounds. Cassie grabbed a shiny butchers knife from a small bag she had carried. I slid the rocks away from the door one at a time, and Cassie twisted the rusty door handle.  
'Ready?' she whispered in my ear. All I did was squeeze her hand.


	6. A Paper Trail

_The Innocent of the War – Chapter 6 – A Paper Trail_

We thrust our bodies out of the door, lashing out at anyone who was near. At least, we were lashing out at the air.  
'Who banged then?' Cassie inquired. I didn't answer her. I was too focused on the object in between us. Apart from the small lines of footprints that we'd made coming out of the shop, we had left the sea to smooth out the sandy floor. But it hadn't been smooth for long. On the floor, in the ten metre expanse between our bodies, lay a huge deep sand circle full of water, and a long wooden ore lay in the centre, half submerged.  
'Okay, this is freaky.' I called to Cassie. She looked as puzzled as I was.  
'Callum, see if you can jump the gap and take a closer look.' Swiftly, I obliged, and just about managed to jump over the ditch left in the sand. Cautiously I neared the ore, thinking it was bugged or wired to detonate or something. Nothing happened when I tapped it, but I did notice a deep carving in the paddle end. An arrow. It pointed straight at the crevice in the cliff that I had spotted a moving figure yesterday… So this person wants us to find them eh? Game on.  
'There's an arrow, it's pointing to the cliffs.' I explained. She didn't even answer me, she just sped off towards them with only a rock to defend herself. Rolling my eyes, I sluggishly followed her, begging her to slow the pace. I didn't notice her stopping until I slammed straight into her back, knocking us both to the ground. We landed on another ore. This time it was leaning against the base of the wall, with another arrow carving, this time guiding us upwards and to the right. Unfortunately, I never was blessed with the gift of climbing, my arms were too weedy. I had to let Cassie investigate alone, while I kept watch of the wall outside, in case anyone came out the holes. Impatient and alone, I paced a long s-shape into the sand. On the fifth revolution of drawing, I heard the blood-curdling scream resonate through the cavernous gaps in the cliff. And the sound of a hard thud greeted me, as I ran to find Cassie.


	7. Call to Arms

_The Innocent of the War – Chapter 7 – Call to Arms_

I felt the rocks shearing my palms apart as I desperately climbed to Cassie's aid: panting and tiring with each movement. Somehow, I managed to get to the small precipice that over hung the hole's floor, and landed. I could hear a conflict happening some distance inside the cave, and small thuds and scrapes echoed down the darkness. I couldn't decide whether to enter or to defend the entrance in case anyone tried to attack me.  
_'Callum!' _screamed the dark. And then I ran, headlong into the unknown, only to collide with something soft. I wrapped my arms around it and squeezed so tight I could hear the moans come from someone. I held onto it for what seemed like eternity until the object fell limp. Only when I let go did Cassie enter my thoughts again.  
'Cassie? Cassie?' I hesitantly called out.  
'C-ca-Callum.' I held out my arms until I felt a hand fall against my body, before dragging down and falling away. I hugged Cassie's weak form and cautiously heaved her into the light. The sight I saw was horrific. Cassie's face was mutilated, a wide gash now graced the entire left side of her face, and three large burns had removed any healthy skin from the right. Examining further, I saw that her left arm was broken, her right arm was bleeding and one of her legs looked like a cut of meat in a butchery. She barely had a pulse and her eyes kept drooping. Luckily, I was training to be a medic at the hospital: I treated her face and right arm with some clean fabric I had found in the shop; washed her burns with water, although the salt had begun to make the pain worse; tentatively re-aligned her arm bones and bandaged them up, and gave her plenty to eat. Unfortunately, the mystery person I had stopped in the cliff hadn't decided to come forward. And eight hours later, I stood alone by the hut, guarding my only friend, thinking of my happiest memory from my child hood…

_It was a late spring day at school, and I was sitting there in Physics feeling so tired that I had given up listening since English. I had leaned against my arm so much it had pins and needles riddling through it. When I had changed arms, that was when the door opened and Miss Harecroft came in followed by a petite little girl with long blonde hair. It was the first time I had payed attention all day, because if she was joining our class, she would have to sit in the only available seat left. The seat that sat empty next to me. I never made friends at school, because I hated socialising. I always sat in the corner of the playground drawing images in the soil._  
_'Everyone, this is Cassie.' said the aging headteacher. Swiftly she left the room and had dumped this Cassie into the hands of our teacher, Mrs Parter. Cassie was directed to the seat next to me and got her things out, and strangely, she said hello to me…  
'Hello, I'm Cassie. What's your name?' she greeted with a smile.  
'Ca-Cal-Callum.' I jittered. She just laughed sweetly and carried on talking. Somehow I managed to keep up the pace and for the first time since my Grandmother died, six years ago, I warped my face into a lopsided smile._

I had never forgotten that day in Spring. Because that was the day I found someone worth believing in. Someone who could shine a light though the most dark of times. Someone who over time… I had begun to fall in love with. Who I would fight for until the end, and that is what I planned to do.


End file.
